Days after luring Sanofi SA to a potential multi-billion-dollar diabetes deal, the pipeline of metabolic assets at Hanmi Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. caught the eye of another big pharma. Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a unit of Johnson & Johnson, of New Brunswick, N.J., gained exclusive global rights outside Korea and China to develop and commercialize Hanmi’s oxyntomodulin-based therapies, including HM12525A (LAPSGLP/GCG), a GLP-1/glucagon receptor dual agonist. Read More
Cytokinetics Inc. shares (NASDAQ:CYTK) rose $1.47, or 13.6 percent to close at $12.29 on Monday after, together with partner Amgen Inc., it shared new detail on the safety and benefits of omecamtiv mecarbil in patients with chronic heart failure (HF) during a presentation of phase II expansion phase data at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions. Read More
Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc. CEO Michael Bigham told BioWorld Today “it’s very hard to know at this point” how competitor Cempra Inc. will handle the pricing of late-stage solithromycin for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP), and what this will mean for omadacycline, which just started a pivotal phase III trial in the same indication. Read More
BOSTON – Among the data presented at the joint Molecular Targets meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute, and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (AACR-NCI-EORTC) were phase I trial as well as preclinical results for the newest member of the a poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor club. Read More
DUBLIN – UK gene therapy firm Nightstarx Ltd. took in $35 million in a series B round to move its lead program in choroideremia into a pivotal trial next year and to move two other programs in inherited retinal diseases into the clinic by 2017. Read More
SHANGHAI – Chinese innovation has long been a fraught topic: Does China have it? If so, what is it? When will it be globally relevant? And, if you want to really get people going just ask if China can innovate at all. Some are optimistic that China is on the right path to become a true global innovation participant. McKinsey & Co. decided it was time to tackle this hot topic in its own fashion with a survey of industry leaders who have one foot in China and the other abroad. Read More
Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK) and Avalon Ventures shook hands on the seventh deal in their 2-year-old build-to-buy translational medicine collaboration by establishing Iron Horse Therapeutics Inc., which will seek to advance treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, by modulating the activity of the protein EphA4. Read More
Therabron Therapeutics Inc., of Rockville, Md., received an accelerated second tranche from its previously announced series B financing and expanded its investor syndicate with gross proceeds of up to $6.75 million. Brace Pharma Capital led the financing. Read More
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Tustin, Calif., reported results from multiple new preclinical studies demonstrating enhanced anti-tumor activity and immune activation for combinations of a preclinical bavituximab equivalent and checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 in preclinical models of breast cancer and melanoma at the 2015 meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer. Read More
Capricor Therapeutics Inc., of Los Angeles, disclosed positive six-month safety and adverse event data from its ongoing DYNAMIC (Dilated cardiomYopathy iNtervention with Allogeneic MyocardIally-regenerative Cells) trial evaluating CAP-1002 in patients with advanced heart failure. Read More
